Alton City Council approves new location for Piasa Armory

Alton City Council approves new location

ALTON — A young man’s desire to operate a gun store with a shooting range finally may happen in his third location, following two 6-0 positive recommendation votes Tuesday by the Alton Plan Commission.

Just meeting quorum, commissioners recommended the City Council OK resolutions — then OK in ordinance form — allowing city code to be amended to allow gun shops and firearm shooting ranges to the list of special uses within the C-5, heavy commercial district.

The second unanimous vote was to recommend the city issue a special use permit to operate a gun store and interior gun range at 3685 E. Broadway. The matters will come to the City Council on Sept. 14.

Eric “Scott” Pulaski, 30, of Alton, owner of Piasa Armory, recently moved his gun store from his second location at 13 E. Broadway, and opened the sales and training portions at the new location near East Alton village limits on Sept. 1. City officials said he could open the store before obtaining the special use permit, since Pulaski was in the process of obtaining the necessary approvals through city channels.

Pulaski first located his store at 115 Market St., which was controversial because it was near Oasis Women’s Center. He had been selling firearms from his home since 2012.

Both the Plan Commission and City Council meetings were lengthy on the matter in 2014, as proponents and opponents gave their opinions on the first location of the store. Commissioners voted 6-1 against recommending a special use permit for that original location. Aldermen, then, only could muster a 4-3 vote in favor when five votes were needed to overturn the commission’s recommendation.

Pulaski, though, continued operating the business as an allowed, “sporting goods” store at that first location, then moved around the corner to a 2,000-square-foot space.

All along, however, he had wanted a larger location in which he also could have an indoor firing range. Before opening his shop on Market, he had gone through the process of getting a special use permit for 400 Landmarks Blvd. He was unable to attract sufficient investors and financing, and never opened at that location, which now is home to Old Bakery Beer Co.

Tuesday’s meeting went considerably more smoothly than those of two years ago, lasting less than 15 minutes.

The former car dealership show room now is the sales area for Piasa Armory, with security precautions in place to prevent thefts, including during a burglary. Among those practices, the firearms are moved from the display area and locked up in two rooms when the store closes. Besides alarms, Pulaski may install a flash fog machine that emits a non-toxic smoke within 30 seconds of activation that blocks a person’s vision.

The store sells pistols, rifles and shotguns, ammunition and other goods, with 30 guns for sale at any time. It also offers concealed carry and other firearms training and gunsmithing services.

The store does not accept firearms with altered or removed serial numbers, and anyone attempting to sell them will be reported to police, the Department of Development and Housing report says.

Pulaski also described how insulation will be installed in the firing range to prevent projectiles from exiting walls and how the spent bullets would be captured and removed from the facility. There will be no firing outside the building.

The shooting range will have 14 lanes in two rooms totaling 4,000 square feet, where the former bays were located, with a maximum of three people allowed per firing lane. The shooters will face south, away from Broadway. The range will have steel on the side doors, and blackened windows.

Piasa Armory will be the only public access, indoor firing range in the area, the others being in Belleville and St. Charles, he said. Piasa Armory, open seven days a week, has six employees and Pulaski plans to hire one more worker.